al-Ramlī, Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Ḥibbān al-Madāʾinī, and a host of others. The last of them to remain alive in this world was an elder from Mecca called Abū Naṣr al-Yasaʿ ibn Zayd al-Zaynabī; he lived until 282 AH, though he was not a strong narrator.

More than a few students of hadith would undertake the hardship of the pilgrimage for no other reason than to meet Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, drawn by his leadership and the loftiness of his chains of transmission.

Several ḥuffāẓ even settled near him for extended periods.

Among his prominent pupils who reported extensively from him were al-Humaydī, al-Shāfiʿī, Ibn al-Madīnī, Aḥmad, and Ibrāhīm al-Ramādī.

Imam al-Shāfiʿī said, “Had it not been for Mālik and Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, the knowledge of the Hijaz would have vanished.”

He also said, “I found all the hadiths dealing with legal rulings in the collection of Ibn ʿUyaynah except six hadiths, and I found them all with Mālik except thirty hadiths.”

This illustrates the vast scope of Sufyān’s learning, for he combined the hadiths of the Iraqis with those of the people of the Hijaz.

He travelled widely and met many scholars whom Mālik never encountered. The two were peers in precision, but Mālik enjoyed greater stature and higher standing, for he had (the narrations of) Nāfiʿ and Saʿīd al-Maqburī.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said, “Ibn ʿUyaynah was among the most knowledgeable of people concerning the hadith of the Hijaz.”

Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī said, “I heard Muḥammad”—meaning al-Bukhārī—